Electronic document modification

ABSTRACT

Electronic document design methods and computer programs allowing a user to separately control and modify layout and the design components of an electronic document. A number of possible document layouts and possible document designs are stored. A document is based on the combination of one of the stored layouts and one of the stored designs. While the user is viewing the electronic document, controls are available to the user allowing the user to view and select among alternate layouts and designs for that document. Color schemes and font schemes for the document may also be separated controlled.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to electronic document design and editing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Desktop publishing applications allowing a user to create electronicdocuments on the user's personal computer are widely known andestablished. A copy of the desktop publishing application is typicallyinstalled on the user's computer system and stored in the user'scomputer memory until activated for use by the user. Desktop publishingproducts of this type must be licensed and paid for prior to or at thetime that the product is installed.

Many people or businesses that occasionally have a need to create customproducts, such as business cards, postcards, brochures and the like,have historically been required to either purchase, install and learn tooperate a desktop publishing application, which they may need onlyinfrequently, or go to the trouble and expense of identifying, visitingand trying to convey their requirements and desires to a print shopemployee or graphic designer.

In recent years, another option has become available for the largenumber of people whose custom document needs have not been well oreconomically served by the other avenues that had been available. Amongthe many new businesses that are taking advantage of the capabilities ofthe Web and modern Web browsers are service providers that providedocument design services for users desiring to create customizedelectronic documents from the user's computer at whatever time and placeis convenient to the user. These service providers typically providetheir customers with the ability to access the service provider's website, download product templates and a product design program, create acustomized markup language document in the browser of the user'scomputer system, and upload the document to the printing serviceprovider's server. After the document has been designed by the user,Web-based service providers also typically allow the user to place anorder for the production and delivery to the user's home or business ofquantities of high quality, printed documents of the type that the useris not capable of producing with the printer systems typically connectedto most personal computer systems.

One network-based product design system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,247,011 entitled “Computerized Prepress”. The patent discloses adocument-authoring tool that is downloaded from a server and runs in theclient browser. The tool allows the user to create a markup languageversion of a product intended for uploading to the server for subsequentprinting. Another system is disclosed in co-pending and co-owned U.S.application Ser. No. 09/557,571 entitled “Managing Print Jobs”, which ishereby incorporated by reference. The system discloses a downloadableediting tool that allows a customer to create and edit WYSIWYG (“whatyou see is what you get”) markup language documents in the customer'sbrowser. The system makes a number of pre-designed product templatesavailable for customer viewing, downloading, and customizing. Thecustomer can upload the electronic document to a server and place anorder for production of the printed products.

Web-based service providers display pre-designed document templates thatcan be individually selected and downloaded by a user to assist the userin creating a document in the user's browser. The service providertypically has prepared a number of different templates to offer the usera range of choices. The user can review the available templates andselect one that contains a combination of design features that appeal tothe user. The selected template is downloaded to the user's computersystem along with downloaded software tools that can be employed by theuser to create a personalized electronic document.

Despite the popularity and substantial use of the Web, certain documentediting abilities have not been successfully implemented. After a userhas selected a desired template, the document editing by the user isgenerally limited to positioning textboxes, entering and modifying textin a textbox, and uploading and positioning of the user's images. If theproduct design templates offered by the service provider are not exactlywhat the user is looking for, the limited ability to customize may causethe user to go elsewhere or be less than fully satisfied by having tosettle for a product design that doesn't quite capture the user'svision. For some potential customers, this has limited the desirabilityof performing document creation on the Web. There is therefore a needfor a system and method to provide users of Web-based document creationsystems with enhanced and more powerful customizations tools andtechniques.

Even in the more hospitable and controllable operating environmentexperienced by traditional desktop publishing products, some documentediting capabilities have not been realized. Some traditional desktoppublishing products have employed the idea of dividing the structure ofthe document into separate component parts, typically identified as thedocument layout and the document design, where the layout relatesgenerally to the location and size of the areas of the document devotedto text and the design relates to other elements, such as the images,color scheme, borders, background effects, and the specific font familyand font attributes. This prior art layout/design approach to involvesthe changing of the location of document text without making acorresponding or compensating change in the position of document imagesor other design features. This can result in unsatisfactory results withtext overlapping with design elements in a manner that interferes withreadability or is otherwise undesirable.

Further, while some desktop publishing products allow a document layout,design, color scheme and font scheme to be separately selected andcontrolled, the user is typically forced to make the selection decisionbased on a set of small generic images. Because the images arecompletely generic, the user is faced with the problem of surveying thegeneric images and trying to visualize how the user's document mightlook. The user may be reduced to repetitively asking to view a displayof the generic image options, selecting one of the images, viewing theresultant impact on the document, asking again to see the display of thegeneric image options, selecting another image, viewing the impact, andso forth until the user ultimately hits upon a result that issatisfactory. Therefore, there is a further need for a more efficientand user-friendly system and method for allowing a user to consider andselect among customization choices for the user's document.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed to satisfying the need for programsand methods that provide a user engaged in editing an electronicdocument with improved and more flexible capabilities for reviewing andselecting available alternative layouts and designs for the document.

In accordance with the invention, an electronic document displayed to auser is based on the combination of a document layout and a documentdesign. A number of possible document layouts and designs for thedocument are retained.

In accordance with aspects of the invention, the color scheme and thefont scheme of the document may also be controlled and modifiedindependently.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, imagesindicating various available layout and design combinations aredisplayed to the user upon user request.

It is an advantage of the invention that assembling a document fromseparate layout and design components provides the user with increasedflexibility and control over the user's document.

It is another advantage of the invention that storing a plurality ofalternative layouts and designs for a document allows the user toreadily select among a range of pre-designed document options.

It is yet another advantage that presenting the user with preview imagesbased on the stored document layouts and designs provides the user witha more realistic representation of how the document would appear.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention willbe better understood with reference to the accompanying drawings,description and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system suitable for practicing theinvention

FIGS. 2-11 are schematic representations of displays available forviewing by a user of UCS 100 on display 140 during the creation of anelectronic document.

FIG. 12 is a representation of the organization of template memory 112

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary user computer system UCS 100 includesprocessor 101 and memory 102. Memory 102 represents all UCS 100components and subsystems that provide data storage, such as RAM, ROM,and hard drives. In addition to providing permanent storage for allprograms installed on UCS 100, memory 102 also provides temporarystorage required by the operating system and the applications while theyare executing. In a preferred embodiment, UCS 100 is a typicallyequipped personal computer, but UCS 100 could also be a portablecomputer, a tablet computer or other device. The user views images fromUCS 100 on display 140, such as a CRT or LCD screen, and provides inputsto UCS 100 via input devices 150, such as a keyboard and a mouse.

When UCS 100 is operating, an instance of the USC 100 operating systemwill be running, represented in FIG. 1 by Operating System 103. Inaddition, the user may be running one or more application programs, InFIG. 1, UCS 100 is running Web browser 105, such as Internet Explorerfrom Microsoft Corporation. Other applications that may be running inUSC 100, such as spreadsheet, e-mail, and presentation programs, arerepresented as applications 104. In the exemplary embodiment, designtool 106 is a document design program downloaded to UCS 100 via network120 from remote server 110. Design tool 106 runs in browser 105 andallows the user to prepare a customized document design in electronicform. Alternatively, design tool 106 could have been obtained by theuser from memory 102 or from another local source. When the customer issatisfied with the design, the design can be uploaded to server 110 forstorage and subsequent production of the desired quantity of thephysical product on appropriate printing and post-print processingsystems.

While server 110 is shown in FIG. 1 as a single block, it will beunderstood that server 110 could be multiple servers configured tocommunicate and operate cooperatively. Memory 111 represents allcomponents and subsystems that provide server data storage, such as RAM,ROM, and disk drives or arrays. As will be discussed in more detailbelow, template memory 112 contains the descriptive information requiredby design tool 106 to render a plurality of document templates inbrowser 105. In some embodiments of the invention discussed below,memory 111 also contains thumbnail image memory 113.

In FIGS. 2-11, screen 200 represents the display being viewed by theuser of UCS 100 on display 140. In FIG. 2, screen 200 is representativeof an introductory page provided by a Web-based electronic documentdesign service provider. The page displays and promotes various types ofproducts available from the service provider and offers active controlsthat allow the user of UCS 100 to select a desired type of product for amore detailed presentation of design options. In this example, FIG. 2shows business cards 210, postcards 220, stationery 230, and brochures240. Images or promotions for additional products, such as returnaddress labels, presentation folders, invitations, announcements, thankyou cards, gift tags, and so forth could also be presented on the screenalong with other information and links. It will be understood that theinvention is not limited to documents that are intended for eventualprinting. The invention is also applicable to the design of documentsintended for use in electronic form, such as electronic business cards,online brochures, and templates for presentation graphics softwareprograms. The invention could as well be readily adapted to a wide rangeof products that a user may wish to customize, such as items ofclothing, product containers, promotional goods, and so forth.

For the purpose of illustration, it will be assumed that the user of USC100 desires to create a custom business card and, therefore, selects thebusiness card 210 option, for example by clicking with the mouse cursoron the business cards 210 image. Referring to FIG. 3, in response to theuser's selection of 210, a page directed specifically to business cardsis retrieved from server 110 and displayed to the user. On this page,the user is presented with eight thumbnail images 301-308 of samplebusiness cards. Each thumbnail image 301-308 represents a differentbusiness card template that has been pre-designed by the serviceprovider. Each image contains various component images, graphics, colorsand arrangements to give the user a range of visual appearances fromwhich to choose and to provide the user with a starting point for theuser's customization to create a personalized document. To provide abroad range of choices, a large number of pre-designed product imagesare made available for review by users. To provide a starting point forthe user's selection process, the initial eight images are indicated tothe user by legend 310 as being in the category identified by theservice provider as Most Popular. Navigation control 312 indicates tothe user that images 301-308 represent the first page of three pages inthis category. To allow the user to quickly locate card templates of thetype desired by the user, the user is offered additional navigationareas 314, 316 and 318 in this example. Each navigation area containslinks to sets of card templates that the service provider has groupedaccording to specific images, e.g., buildings, flowers, kids, orspecific styles, e.g., elegant, bold, conservative, or specific types ofbusiness activities, e.g. child care, florist, real estate.

For the purpose of this discussion, it will be assumed that the userselects thumbnail image 301. In response to the user's selection ofimage 301, design tool 106 retrieves from server 110 the XML documentdescription of the document corresponding to thumbnail image 301 andrenders business card template 410. FIG. 4 represents the initialtemplate customization screen displayed to the user. It will beunderstood that template designs will be displayed to the user in colorand will typically include one or more lines, shapes, images, graphics,word art, and background effects. For clarity and simplicity of thispresentation, template 401 will be discussed as having a single line 420as its only design feature.

Some users may be satisfied with designing a document with no additionalmodification beyond the entering of the user's personal information. Toprovide a simple and straightforward interface for these users, the fullrange of editing tools are not immediately presented to the user. InFIG. 4, the user is presented with a set of text fields 430, each fieldcorresponding to one item of information to be entered in the businesscard. Template 401 contains sample text indicating to the user the sizeand location where the user's corresponding entries will be displayed.The user can enter the user's desired information in some or all of thefields 430.

When the user desires to see template 410 updated with the user'sinformation from fields 430, the user can click Preview button 440. Inresponse to Preview button 440, design tool 106 will update template 410to incorporate the user's information from fields 430. Referring to FIG.5, an example where the user has entered information in some of fields430 and clicked Preview 450 is shown. Design tool 106 has replaced thegeneric text of the original template 401 with the user's custom text.

If the user desires to do additional customization of the electronicdocument, the user can click on Customize Now button 460 to displayadditional customization tools. The implementation of a limited level ofediting, as discussed in connection with FIGS. 4 and 5, is a designchoice by the service provider. The system could be designed to progressdirectly from a general selection screen, such as shown in FIG. 3, to afull editing screen, such as shown in FIG. 6. The service provider maycharge a higher price to the user for accessing and using theseadditional tools to edit the document.

Referring to FIG. 6, when the user clicks on Customize Now 450,indicating the desire to use the additional customization tools, theuser is presented with additional editing tools, represented by edittool bar 610 and document controls 600. Edit Tool Bar 610 containsvarious buttons, controls and menus allowing the user to add additionaltext boxes, insert text, change the font, change font attributes, andperform other typical editing actions. The techniques for designing andusing edit tool bars are well known in the art.

The user is also presented with additional active document controls 600that enable the user to customize specific component features of thedocument. In FIG. 6, these document controls are identified as ChangeColor Scheme 602, Change Layout 604, Change Design Effects 606, andChange Font Scheme 608. Illustrative examples of the function andoperation of these controls will be given below. First, the underlyingstructure of the documents will be discussed.

In the disclosed markup language design tool 106 that executes in theuser's browser, a markup language document is comprised of a pluralityof individual containers. Each container may contain text, an image, ashape, a line, word art or other content supported by the markuplanguage. Each container has associated attributes, such as size andposition. Depending on the content, the container may have variousadditional attributes. For example, text containers may definefont-related parameters such as the font family, font color, and fontweight. Containers with VML shapes may define parameters such as border,shadow, opacity, and fill image.

The template 410 electronic document is generated from separatelydefined and separately controllable layout and design descriptions. Thedocument layout defines the position and dimensions of all containers inthe document by defining the left, top, width, height and z-indexposition for each container in the document. This contrasts with priorart systems in that prior art systems, if they addressed the concept ofa separately controllable “layout” at all, typically considered thelayout to apply only to text elements. While this form of layout controlgave the user some control, it often was unsatisfactory because a changein text position could result in text conflicting with images, designelements or the like. By including the size and position of allcontainers, not just text containers, in the layout definition, thepresent system provides for a more compatible relationship betweenlayouts and designs. For text containers, the layout also defines thefont size and specifies the “wash” effect allowing text to be placed andread on an image.

The document design will store design and style information for eachcontainer in the associated document layout. The specific informationfor each container will vary depending on the container contents. Forexample, for text containers, the design may specify the font color, thefont style, font weight, and the border. For an image, the design mayspecify the border. For word art, the design may specify the font weightand the color. For shapes in VML or a similar language, the design mayspecify the border, color, path, shadow, opacity and fill image.

Rather than incorporate fixed color and font information into the designfor every element, the system may advantageously be embodied to handlecolor and font information with separately defined and controlled colorschemes and font schemes. A color scheme is a set of complementarycolors pre-selected by the service provider to be applied as a group toa document design. In this case, rather than incorporating specificcolor information into the design definition for the documentcontainers, the design definition would instead provide a reference to acolor scheme index for some or all document elements, allowing the userto change the colors used in a document by changing the selected colorscheme.

A font scheme is a set of complementary fonts or font weights andattributes that have been pre-selected by the service provider to beapplied as a group to a document design. As with the color scheme,rather than incorporating specific defined font families, weights, andattributes into the design definition for text containers, the designwould instead provide a reference to a font scheme index, allowing theuser to change the type and appearance of the fonts used in the documentby changing the selected font scheme.

Layouts that share the same number and type of containers are consideredto form a layout family. Similarly, designs that define the styleattributes for the same number and type of containers are considered toform a design family. A design family is compatible with a layout familyonly if the designs in the design family define style attributes for atleast the number and type of containers in the layout family.

Referring to FIG. 12, the content of template memory 112 is depicted ingreater detail. In FIG. 12, the information required to render atemplate in the user's browser is stored as separate layouts, design,color schemes and font schemes. Layout memory 1202 contains the templatelayout descriptions for the various product templates offered by theservice provider. Each individual layout description, such as 1204, hasan associated individual layout identifier 1206 that includes a familyidentifier 1208 for the family group indicating the design family orfamilies to which the layout family belongs.

Design memory 1210 contains the template design descriptions for thevarious product templates offered by the service provider. Eachindividual design description, such as 1212, has an associated designidentifier 1214 that includes the group identifier 1216 for the designgroup, default color scheme identifier 1218 and default font schemeidentifier 1220. A design group is the set of similar designs preparedby the service provider that offer different effects or stylisticvariations for the central theme or image.

Color scheme memory 1222 contains the descriptions of the various colorschemes pre-selected by the service provider for use with at least someof the designs in design memory 1210. Each color scheme, such as 1224,has an individual identifier 1226. In general, all pre-designed colorschemes are made available to the user for selection, if desired. Insome cases, the service provider may decide that some color schemes arenot appropriate for certain designs and will not be displayed to theuser. In this case, color scheme identifier 1226 may also include designfamily identifier 1228) usable to identify the design families withwhich the color scheme is or is not compatible.

Font scheme memory 1230 contains the descriptions of the various fontschemes pre-designed by the service provider for use with at least someof the designs in design memory 1210. Each font scheme, such as 1232,has an individual identifier 1234. Similarly to color schemes, allpre-designed font schemes will generally be presented to the user forreview and possible selection. If the service provider decides that somefont schemes will not be presented to the user in connection withcertain designs, font scheme identifier 1234 may also include designfamily identifier 1236, usable to identify the design families withwhich the font scheme is or is not compatible.

The thumbnail sample document images displayed to the user for reviewand selection purposes, such as images 301-308 in FIG. 3, were eachpre-designed by the service provider for the purpose of illustrating andattractively presenting the document templates available. The serviceprovider selected and combined one of the available designs from memory1210 with a compatible layout from layout memory 1202, a color schemefrom color scheme memory 1222 and a font scheme from font scheme memory1230 to create a representative example of a business card. The selectedthumbnail image serves as the default starting point for the user in theuser's process of customizing the document. Each thumbnail is associatedwith its component design and layout. When the user clicks on athumbnail image, indicating a desire to prepare a document similar tothat image, the associated layout and design are retrieved from server110, transmitted to design tool 106 and processed in the user's browserto render the resulting template for the user. As discussed above, atthe editing screen shown in FIG. 4, the user's editing options arelimited. For example, the user can only enter the user's text in thedefault font and at the default location. If the user moves to theexpanded customization screen, as represented in FIG. 6, the modularnature of the document organization allows the user to change any one ofthe components of the document while the others remain unchanged. Thisprovides the user with significant flexibility in customizing thedocument to meet the user's needs and tastes.

Referring to FIG. 7, a representation of screen 200 after the user hasclicked on Change Color Scheme 602 is depicted. When a document control602, 604, 606 or 608 is selected, its appearance is modified to bevisually distinctive, indicated in FIG. 7 by the bold border for ChangeColor Scheme control 602. Drop down menu 700 is displayed beneath colorcontrol 620. Menu 700 displays a number of color schemes available foruse with template 410. Each color scheme has an associated descriptiveor suggestive name 702 to assist the user in recognizing anddifferentiating between the different schemes, indicated in FIG. 7 asName 1, Name 2, and so forth, and an associated row of color boxes 704.Depending on the color scheme, some or all of the boxes associated withthe color scheme will be displayed in appropriate colors to give theuser a visual indication of the components of that color scheme. Becausethere will typically be more color scheme options than can besimultaneously displayed in window 700, scroll bar 706 allows the userto scroll through the menu to view all available color scheme choices.The complete color scheme table and associated indices is relativelysmall, therefore all color scheme information is retrieved from server110 at the time the user enters the customization mode so as to bereadily available in design tool 106. Other retrieval timing could beused, if desired.

To select a color scheme, the user moves the mouse cursor over a desiredcolor scheme and clicks. The service provider may have determined thatone or more containers in the document will not be variable by the userand will always appear in the same color. For these containers, thedesign will specify a fixed color. For those containers that areintended to have colors that can be varied by the user, the design willassociate each container with at least one specific component of thecolor scheme. If the user selects a new color scheme, design tool 106will modify template 410 to reflect the new colors as specified by thenew color scheme.

Referring to FIG. 8, a representation of screen 200 after the user hasclicked on Change Layout 604 is depicted. When the user selects ChangeLayout 604, design tool 106 retrieves from server 110 the XMLdescriptions of the layouts in the corresponding layout family. For eachreceived layout, design tool 106 generates an electronic document basedon the received layout, the current design, color scheme and font schemeand the content already entered by the user in the document. Eachdocument 801-804 is displayed in window 800 at a reduced size in aseparate browser window 800. An image corresponding to the currentdocument in template 410 is included for comparison. In this manner, theuser is simultaneously presented with a number of accurate reduced-sizeimages of the user's document, allowing the user to make an informeddecision regarding which layout is the most attractive and desirable tothe user. The number of alternatives displayed in window 800 will varyaccording to the number of different layouts designed by the serviceprovider and received from server 110.

If the user, upon reviewing the images in window 800, desires to use anew layout to the document, the user moves the mouse cursor over adesired image in window 800 and clicks. In response to the user'srequest, window 800 is closed and the newly selected version of thedocument replaces the version of the document previously being displayedas template 410.

Referring to FIG. 9, a representation of screen 200 after the user hasclicked on Change Design Effects 606 is depicted. When the user selectsChange Design Effects 606, design tool 106 retrieves from server 110 theXML descriptions of the designs in the corresponding design group. Foreach received design, design tool 106 generates an electronic documentbased on the received design, the current layout, color scheme and fontscheme and the content already entered by the user in the document. Eachdocument 901-904 is displayed in a reduced size in a separate browserwindow 900. An image corresponding to current template 410 is includedfor comparison. In this manner, the user is presented simultaneouslywith accurate reduced-size images of different designs applied to theuser's actual document, allowing the user to make an informed decisionregarding which design is the most attractive and desirable to the user.The number of alternatives displayed in window 900 will vary accordingto the number of different designs prepared by the service provider andreceived from server 110.

If the user, upon reviewing the images in window 900, desires to use anew design in the document, the user moves the mouse cursor over adesired image in window 900 and clicks. In response to the user'srequest, window 900 is closed and the newly selected version of thedocument replaces the version of the document previously being displayedas template 410.

Referring to FIG. 10, a representation of screen 200 after the user hasclicked on Change Font Scheme 608 is depicted, Drop down menu 1000 isdisplayed beneath font control 608. Menu 1000 displays the font schemesprepared by the service provider and available for use with the documentbeing prepared in template 410. Each font scheme 1002 includes anexample of the font elements of the font scheme. If the available fontschemes cannot all be simultaneously displayed in window 1000, scrollbar 1004 will be made available. To select a font scheme, the user movesthe mouse cursor over a desired scheme and clicks. Each text containerin the design is associated with at least one specific component of thefont scheme. If the user selects a new font scheme, design tool 106 willmodify template 410 appropriately to reflect the newly selected fonts.

While one illustrative embodiment has been explained, alternateembodiments could be employed. For example, referring to FIG. 11, animplementation not requiring the generation of interim reduced sizeimages is depicted. Instead of controls 604, 606 and 608, selectioncontrols 1102, 1104 and 1106 are provided. Each control indicates to theuser the number of choices of that type available for that particulardocument and which of the choices is currently active. In the exampleshown in FIG. 11, for the document currently being customized by theuser, there are four possible layouts, five possible designs and threepossible font schemes. The document template 410 currently beingdisplayed is based on layout 1, design 1 and font scheme 1, indicated bythe “1” being displayed in a visually distinctive manner todifferentiate it from the other available choices. To view document 410with another layout, design or font scheme, the user can position themouse cursor over one of the double angle brackets or over one of thedisplayed numbers in 1102, 1104 or 1106 and click. In this case, designtool 106 would, if necessary, retrieve the selected layout, design orfont scheme from server 110, generate the modified document and displaythe revised document in template 410. In this manner, the user can causetemplate 410 to be updated with a single click to reflect a new layout,design or font, avoiding the need to go through the multiple steps ofclicking once to cause reduced size images to be generated and thenclicking again on an image to cause the displayed document to be updatedto reflect the choice. This same approach could also readily be appliedto color schemes, if desired.

Alternate embodiments providing fewer user-controlled options could alsobe readily employed. For example, instead of offering the user theability to select among several font schemes, pre-selected specific fontinformation could be incorporated into the design for each textcontainer. In this embodiment, the font family, font style and fontweight for each text container would be defined directly in the design.Changing the font scheme would not be an option for the user and ChangeFont Scheme button 650 would not be required.

In yet other alternative embodiments, instead of generating customthumbnail images in response to the user selection of controls 604 or606, a set of thumbnail images for each different product template couldbe pre-generated by the service provider and stored at server 110 inthumbnail memory 113. In one embodiment using pre-generated thumbnailimages, a thumbnail image is pre-generated and stored in thumbnailmemory 113 for every possible combination of layout, design, colorscheme and font scheme for that product. If a user were to, for example,click layout control 604, design tool 106 would retrieve thumbnailimages reflecting the current design, color scheme and font scheme beingviewed by the user in template 410 in combination with all availablelayouts. If the numbers of possible layouts, designs, color schemes andfont schemes are significant, this approach would require generating,storing, searching and retrieving a large number of thumbnail images.

In another embodiment using pre-generated thumbnails, thumbnail memory113 would contain a set of pre-generated thumbnails based on a selecteddefault layout, design, color scheme and font scheme. Thumbnail imageswould be included for each available layout for card 304 in combinationwith the default design, color scheme and font scheme, for eachavailable design in combination with the default layout, color schemeand font scheme, and for each available font scheme combined with thedefault layout, color scheme and design. This results in thumbnails thatare less likely to reflect the current combination of layout, design,color scheme and font scheme in the template 410 being currently viewedby the user, but reduces the volume of thumbnails that need to bestored. Because these thumbnail images were generated based on thedefault settings for the product template, any earlier changes made bythe user will not be indicated in the thumbnail. For example, the usermay have earlier performed a color scheme change and now wishes toreview other layout or design options. The color scheme change is notreflected in the pre-generated thumbnails so, to minimize possible userconfusion in viewing the thumbnail images, the images are displayed in agray scale rather than in color. This presents the choices in a fashionthat eliminates the potentially confusing feature of color from thelayout or design decision process.

In yet other embodiments, simplified systems offering the user a singleintegrated layout/design control could be employed. In one embodiment ofthis type, images would be displayed to the user representing alternatedocument versions with changes to two or more document components. Ifthe user selects the single control, design tool 106 would display aplurality of thumbnail document images, each image based on differentlayout and design combinations. In another embodiment of this type, notinvolving the generation and display of reduced size images, a singlecontrol offering a plurality of selectable elements, similar to the typeof controls depicted in FIG. 1, could be presented to the user. Eachselectable control could be associated with a different combination oflayout and design. If the user selected one of the elements, thedisplayed document would be updated to reflect the new combination ofelements associated with the selected control element.

In the above-described manners and embodiments, a user is givensubstantially increased control over the design of the user's documentwithout requiring the user to purchase, install and learn to operatedesktop publishing software. While the invention has been described invarious exemplary embodiments, the described embodiments are to beconsidered as illustrative rather than restrictive, The scope of theinvention, therefore, is as indicated in the following claims and allequivalent methods and systems.

1. A computer-implemented electronic document method comprisingretaining a plurality of document layouts and a plurality of documentdesigns; providing an image of an electronic document based on a currentlayout, the current layout being one of the retained document layouts,and a current design, the current design being one of the retaineddocument designs; providing first and second controls while at least aportion of the document image is available for viewing by the user, inresponse to user operation of the first control, generating a pluralityof different images for simultaneous viewing by the user, each of thedifferent images being based on at least the current design and adifferent one of the retained layouts, and in response to user operationof the second control, generating a plurality of different images forsimultaneous viewing by the user, each of the different images beingbased on at least the current layout and a different one of the retaineddesigns.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the different images arefurther based on user-supplied document content.
 3. The method of 1further comprising retaining a plurality of pre-generated images basedon combinations of at least some of the retained document layouts andretained document designs and wherein the images provided in response touser operation of the first or second control are selected from theplurality of retained pre-generated images.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein each of the plurality of retained designs includes a colorscheme.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality ofretained designs includes a font scheme.
 6. The method of claim 1further comprising, in response to user selection of one of theplurality of different images, modifying the image of the electronicdocument such that the image of the electronic document is based on thelayout and the design of the selected different image.
 7. The method ofclaim 6 further comprising providing the electronic document to aprinter for printing.
 8. One or more computer-readable media encodedwith a computer-executable program for implementing a method comprising:receiving a document layout from a plurality of retained layouts and adocument design from a plurality of retained designs; generating animage of an electronic document based on the received layout and thereceived design. providing first and second user-operable controls whileat least a portion of the document image is available for viewing by theuser, in response to user operation of the first control, generating aplurality of different images for simultaneous viewing, each of thedifferent images being based on the current design and a different oneof the retained layouts, and in response to user operation of the secondcontrol, generating a plurality of different images for simultaneousviewing, each of the different images being based on the current layoutand a different one of the retained designs.
 9. The method of claim 8wherein the different images are further based on user-supplied documentcontent.
 10. The method of claim 8 further comprising retaining aplurality of pre-generated images based on combinations of at least someof the retained document layouts and document designs and providingimages from the plurality of pre-generated images in response to useroperation of the first or second control.
 11. The method of claim 8further comprising, in response to user selection of one of theplurality of different images, automatically modifying the image of theelectronic document such that the image of the electronic document isbased on the layout and the design of the selected different image. 12.A computer-implemented method for creation of a document image, themethod comprising displaying a first document image to a user,displaying a plurality of user-operable customization controls,including at least a layout control and a design control; in response touser operation of the layout control, simultaneously displaying two ormore different images, each of the different images having the design ofthe first image and a layout that is different from the layout of firstimage, and in response to user operation of the design control,simultaneously displaying two or more different images, each of thedifferent images having the layout of the first image and a design thatis different from the design of the first image.
 13. The method of claim12 wherein the different images are further based on user-supplieddocument content.
 14. The method of 12 further comprising retaining aplurality of pre-generated images based on combinations of at least someof the retained document layouts and retained document designs andwherein the images provided in response to user operation of the firstor second control are selected from the plurality of retainedpre-generated images.
 15. The method of claim 12 wherein each of theplurality of retained designs includes a color scheme.
 16. The method ofclaim 12 wherein each of the plurality of retained designs includes afont scheme.
 17. The method of claim 12 further comprising, in responseto user selection of one of the plurality of different images,automatically modifying the first document image such that the firstdocument image is based on the layout and the design of the selecteddifferent image.
 18. The method of claim 17 further comprising providingthe first document to a printer for printing.
 19. One or morecomputer-readable media encoded with a computer-executable program forimplementing the method comprising: displaying an image of a firstdocument to a user, displaying a plurality of user-operablecustomization controls, including at least a layout control and a designcontrol; in response to user operation of the layout control,simultaneously displaying two or more different images, each of thedifferent images having the design of the first image and a layout thatis different from the layout of first image, and in response to useroperation of the design control, simultaneously displaying two or moredifferent images, each of the different images having the layout of thefirst image and a design that is different from the design of the firstimage.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein the different images arefurther based on user-supplied document content.
 21. The method of 19further comprising retaining a plurality of pre-generated images basedon combinations of at least some of the retained document layouts andretained document designs and wherein the images provided in response touser operation of the first or second control are selected from theplurality of retained pre-generated images.
 22. The method of claim 19further comprising, in response to user selection of one of theplurality of different images, automatically modifying the image of thefirst document based on the layout and the design of the selecteddifferent image